Pro-life advocates with Abortion on Trial have accused two late-term abortionists of conducting an experiment on women and girls without their knowledge, including a woman who died along with her unborn baby after a late-term abortion.
On Wednesday, Abortion on Trial released the details of its findings on its website, calling the experiment a “shocking discovery … in the pursuit of evidence in the wrongful death case of Keisha Atkins.”
The pro-life organization accused abortionists Carmen Landau and Shelley Sella of conducting an experiment on 501 women and underage girls as they were having abortions at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later at the Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It pointed to a study published in the journal “Contraception” in May 2020 that names Landau and Sella as co-authors along with researchers at the University of California-San Francisco.
The study examined whether use of the abortion drug mifepristone would decrease the time involved in a late-term induction abortions. According to the study, 501 women were involved in the study, including 48 girls under age 18; and it took place between 2016 and 2017. Researchers concluded that there was “no perceived benefit” to the addition of mifepristone in the abortion process.
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While the study does not mention Southwestern Women’s Options by name, Abortion on Trial said the location of the experiment was clear from evidence in the study, including “the blatant inclusion of one Keisha Marie Atkins in the medical research article itself.”
Abortion on Trial also asserted that “500 other women were included in that medical research without being told.”
In 2017, Atkins died shortly after her unborn baby was aborted at Southwestern Women’s Options. Abortionists Landau, Shannon Carr and Curtis Boyd are being sued for negligence in Atkins’ death.
According to Abortion on Trial, the lawyers in Atkins’ case only recently learned about the experiment.
It reported:
Although the authors claim there were updated policies and procedures manuals documenting these changes, no such documentation was given to attorneys when [the abortion facility] was subpoenaed for documents regarding Keisha’s death that occurred in February 2017…shortly before Dr. Landau stopped giving her patients Mifepristone experimentally. In fact, no mention of this study was included in Keisha’s file at all, nor was any mention of it made by Landau when deposed about Keisha’s death. It appears as though Dr. Landau didn’t want attorneys to learn about this piece of literature.
Abortion on Trial director Jamie Jeffries slammed the abortion facility for treating women like “lab rats.”
“This study not only confirms our claims that S.W.O. performs elective late term abortions regularly, it confirms our theory that abortion procedures are being altered by S.W.O. providers and women are being injured as a result,” Jeffries said. “Women aren’t lab rats, we shouldn’t be used by medical providers for their research without our knowledge. But S.W.O. staff seem to have, once again, missed the memo that consent matters.”
Other evidence in Atkins’ wrongful death case suggests that she was “drugged and drugged to make her forget she was drugged,” according to Abortion on Trial.
Last year, the pro-life group also released a deposition of Landau admitting that they tell women not to go to the emergency room if they are experiencing complications.
The University of New Mexico Hospital and the abortion facility are accused of medical malpractice, wrongful death and civil conspiracy in the lawsuit.
Operation Rescue and Abortion Free New Mexico, which have been following the case, suspect a cover-up. The groups obtained Atkins’ autopsy report along with a CAD printout of a 911 call from the abortion facility on the date of Atkins’ death. The groups said both documents raised serious questions about the mishandling of Atkins’ medical emergency, and raised their suspicions of an attempted cover-up involving the hospital, with which lead abortionist Curtis Boyd is connected.
